Yea, everyone but Aravashnial is coming with you. When you get to Horgus' place he'll probably stay behind there as well unless you want him to come along. Your escort mission is quickly coming to a close, and soon you'll be left with only the people who are actually able to fight.
Also, I'm not trying to railroad you guys into taking one way or another. I can work with either path so go whichever way you think works best.
I'd like to keep this going at a decent pace, so if the party doesn't decide which way to go by tomorrow night, I think I'll make a GM push one way or the other. I just don't want it to turn into a situation like what recently happened in another game I'm in where there was a party split on where to go and it turned into a week-long debate. I'm trying not to railroad you guys any more than the AP already does, but I also want to keep things moving.
I'm okay with crossing the gorge using the levitation scale to help.
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I thought we would do what Anevia said.... drop everybody into the trench, walk to the other side, then levitate one or two people up and have them hold a rope for everybody else. Agreed, we are exposed to attack from above but we could do it near a sewer entrance and hide in the tunnels if need be.
If Kel *REALLY* doesn't want to do that, Deia isn't dead set on crossing that way, it just is a lot more unknowns (how far to go, what we might run into, how long it will take, how to get back in the city if we go all the way to the wall, etc...) in trying to go around.
I'm not trying to force you guys to go one way or the other. I just don't want this to bog down. In fact, if I do have to railroad later, I'll roll for which way it goes. 1 for the trench, 2 for the walkabout. But I won't roll unless it goes that way.
Could we go around it possibly? I'm okay doing the levitate/go across thing too.
I'm up for either. Kel just doesn't think it's a good idea to put ourselves in a situation where a potential enemy could have high ground on either side of us.
Rex now has some more information that may influence the way this goes, and rather than take the choice away from the party I'm going to let the discussion continue.
So...the mighty crack in the earth defeats us?
I'm trying not to take the decision on how to proceed forward away from you. I gave Rex some information that hopefully would help make the decision easier, but I guess it didn't.
Basically, if you go across the trench, it takes you to Horgus and Anevia's houses in pretty much a straight line before reaching Defender's Heart. If you go through New Kenabres by going around, the only guaranteed exit is all the way across town, but you pass by all 3 cultist hideouts along the way and you come out fairly close to Defender's Heart.
It's just a discussion. We're in a crappy situation. On one hnd we have a long journey past a lot of bad guys. On the other hand we are deliberately putting ourselves into a perfect ambush spot and hoping we don't get caught.
Either way is bad.
Now that Rex has revealed more about where the trench goes, using the scale to go take the short way is probably our bast bet.
Doesn't the scale do some sort of fog effect beneath it too? I can't remember.
It does. It creates a pillar of fog directly beneath it, which provides concealment in a 5ft area that extends as far up as the feet of whoever is levitating. Basically, it looks like whoever is levitating is standing on a cylindrical cloud.
Levitation it is!
Just let me know how you're going across. Like, if your going to repeat the way that you did the jump underground, who's going over first to secure the rope, who's going to be the ferry, etc.
Repeating what we did before sounds okay. Kel would be good as the ferry.
How wide is the trench?
It's about 100ft across.
Yikes.
It's not that bad. It's only very slightly bigger than the distance between bases on a baseball field. At a full run someone could cover it in just a few seconds if it were flat ground.
Whoever has the Aid scale, can you please hit me with it before I go diving headlong into the middle of 5 cultists?
…i attack the darkness.
No one can save you...you must face the Gazebo alone!
I think we had similar confusion before, Kel, although last time I think I had the amount of temp HP still listed separately. Last time I had it so that tracking would have read "+7hp, 17 temp" to reflect your effective HP as being 7 higher than maximum with 17 of it being temporary. I think my next update will go back to that.
For some reason I was thinking Aid's duration was measured in hours, not minutes, which is why I kind of ignored tracking how much was temp HP. It doesn't really matter when it's lasting all day. But it doesn't, which means that Rex's Aid should have probably worn off by now since it was cast during the fight at the library. But oh well, that's my mistake so I'll let it continue for the fight.
I think that, unless otherwise stated, caster level for SLAs is based on hit dice. A quick, cursory glance at the rules forum says that by default SLA caster levels are affected by spellcasting classes either.
Also, since you waited until you were adjacent before using Shatter, you're only subject to a single AoO. I bet all those cultists who can't rip you to shreds are just thinking "Thanks, Baphomet, for making your favored weapon a reach weapon. Jerk."
Nya nya pththththth. :p
This is turning into an interesting fight.
That Touch Attack crit confirm thing is super nice. :)
That it is, and you've got 2 characters with that chance - Rex and Tina both target touch AC with some of their stuff. It's just helped turn the tide of the fight in a rather major way, too.
Or has it?
What's that, 3 crits this fight? Those poor cultists. :)
Four crit chances so far this fight. One was a cultist attacking you, and then only 2 of the 3 crits that the party has had have confirmed.
Ok, so since this fight is almost over and probably will be after next round, I want you guys to give me some feedback on it. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "was that a fight?" and 10 being "OH GOD WHY!?", how would you rate this fight?
What made it good?
What made it bad?
What do you think I should have done differently?
Is this the kind of fight you'd like to see more often?
Did it do a decent job at introducing a new party member in an interesting fashion?
And, as always, any general feedback of any kind is welcomed.
You can respond here or in a PM, either way is fine. As with the other times I've asked for feedback, I'm trying to gauge my performance. This time around I've just posed a few specific questions that I'd appreciate if you'd answer.
Good at introducing a new member and not a bad fight at all. Nothing to change that I saw.
I rate this fight a 7. Tense, interesting set up, high stakes.
The only thing I nitpick about is really our lack of coordination as a party, though a bit is about the NPCs not doing the best things they could do. That's mostly our own fault though. We can talk about it in game once this mops up.
I'm rating it a 6 because I think we were partly responsible for making that fight hard. Also, that cultist leader was taking too long to cast spells, I think. Not sure if he was programmed to do so.
But the fight was very enjoyable - it's good to have some tension! Between this and the stinky dretches, we've had some challenging combats. I thought it was a clever way to bring in Ausk.
I'm new to playing a wizard, so I'm always open to some guidance and criticism. I felt bad about throwing rubble in Tina's way. I didn't realize the ridiculous radius of Stone Call until I decided to use it!
Stone call is an amazing spell when the party has a ranged advantage. If the party is built for melee it can make things complicated. Its one of my favorite low level spells, but it does take some coordination with everyone else to make sure it doesn't mess up other people's tactics. If we didn't have to rescue Ausk, it would have been perfect.
I love wizards, so here's some tips-
For situations like this, you might look into picking up Flaming Sphere. It's great for blocking off parts of the battlefield, and you can keep moving it around after you cast it and parking it on top of baddies.
Spells combinations like True Strike/Web Bolt or Mudball are great low level ways of dealing with Fliers and casters (entanglement makes flight and casting really hard, and blindness makes them easy targets and basically takes them out of the fight for a while).
My wizards almost always carry combat nets with extra long lead ropes, because True Strike makes it practically impossible to fail the next round's attack roll. Then you just hand the rope off to one of the strong folks, (or attach it to your saddle horn if you are mounted, and spur your horse with your move action).
As a low level wizard, your bag of tricks is best used to shape the battlefield and boost the party rather than trying to take out enemies on your own. A color spray or sleep spell is great, but circumstantial and dangerous because you make yourself a target when you use them (either by being close or because of the full round cast time). On the other hand, casting a spell like Bull Strength or is going to pay off every single round of the fight.
There's a spell called Bungle. Against bruiser enemies, it's amazing. It's essentially trading your action for theirs, which is actually a really good trade.
Finally, Communal Mount is a seriously versatile spell. It's a standard action summon spell that creates 6 horses. They aren't combat trained, but in a confined space, they're a hell of meat wall. That spell plus a thunderstone is an instant stampede.
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My analysis and input is largely the same as Max and Kel's: It was a cool fight but the party didn't really act optimally. As an encounter overall, the design was good and very much in alignment with what we have seen in the rest of the city.
We sort of went in piecemeal rather than as a group and then between Lann and Deia getting put out of the fight, everything else was harder than it should have been. Lann's knockout was probably unavoidable but Deia's was mostly the result of poor tactics. I decided not to have her use Prehensile Hair early in the fight because I was worried about the qasit. Had she had a way to keep more distance, I don't think she would have had to eat all those glaive attacks. All that being said, I think events like this validate my build plan from the perspective that people would learn and adapt to their situations.
Also, the critical threats on both sides made the fight more brutal than I expected. That probably won't happen every fight.
I'd give it a 6.
Part of my problem is I have never played a gunslinger and I'm finding it a bit of an odd class to play. Right now, I feel like I spend most of the battle reloading, though it is easy to hit because it is a touch attack within 30. But the reload will get better as I gain levels so it won't be issue long term.
I also think we are still figuring out our tactics as a party as well, and this being a PbP game, that takes longer to get a handle on I think.
As for the fight itself, I liked it. But is it possible to label some of the NPC combatants on the map when there are a lot of critters to fight?
I don't know much about gunslingers, but I think it helps to get reloading feats and alchemical cartridges.
The feats will come in time.
The cartridges are something he can do this level. Tina can make them for him. Alchemical items are made for 1/3 base cost rather than 1/2, and alchemists make them even cheaper than normal, so it's within our price range.
Mostly it just requires some cash and some down time, and discussing it with her in character so she knows what she's making.
Rex, keep in mind that with your build, you are great at other ranged attacks too. If you get some Tanglefoot bags from Tina, you could really change the fight with them. They're a serious game changer up until about level 5. In my opinion they don't see enough play considering how effective they are.
So if I'm reading everyone correctly, this fight is right about where you'd expect a slightly harder than average fight to land on the difficulty scale. Maybe an APL+1 or APL+2 feel at worst. Not a level of difficulty that you want to see every fight, but something that could be thrown into the mix on a fairly regular basis. Also, I probably should do something about labeling the enemies. I had the labels in my head to keep track of their stats, but that doesn't help you guys.
What was it, aside from the party tactics, that made the fight tougher for you guys? Was it the number of enemies, the spellcasting, the fact that just about everyone was getting hit or being threatened at different times?
Do you want to see encounters with more enemies, tougher enemies, more variation between enemies in a group, or what? I know that so far most of the fighting has been against the same types of enemies. I know there are a few more of those before you hit mythic as well, so I'll try to do as much as I can to change it up some. I also know that, for the most part, fights with more enemies will be more threatening by virtue of balancing the action economy more, but at the same time I don't want every fight to be 5+ enemies because then it gets a little bit tedious. So I'd like to get some input on how you guys would like to see the fights go to keep things a bit fresh.
Also, this fight has technically lasted 6 rounds so far, with a surprise round as well, but really it's been more of 4 before victory was pretty much guaranteed for you guys. Do you like faster combats like that, or did you like more delayed combats like what happened before you reached the surface?
And, finally, am I asking for too much feedback and/or being annoying about it? Be honest. I know there's such a thing as too many questions.
Fighting lots of the same enemy seems pretty normal to me, and doesn't seem like a problem. If you start adding too many variations between enemies in a group, I think you end up with even more things to track, which can make the game harder for you to run. So there's definitely a balance.
In terms of combats, if things start to get repetitive then go ahead and mix it up. More enemies, less enemies, longer fights, shorter fights, what have you. You've been doing a great job. We really appreciate it!
Good idea on tanglefoot bags, never thought of them! Nobody uses them in my ftf group.
I figure once I can start making cartridges, get feats, and starting making revolvers, the gunslinger should become a lot more effective.
I'm traveling for Memorial Day weekend and may have some difficulty posting consistently. Please bot me as needed.
The loot log should be editable by you guys again. I just realized that it had apparently reverted permission away from "anyone with the link can edit" to "anyone with the link can view." Kind of makes it hard for you guys to update it yourselves if you can't edit it.
I also deleted the line for the potions of CLW from this recent fight. Between Lann and Kel, all 4 of them have been used.
Oh, and with it being a holiday weekend for the US, and usually one where most people are off to family gatherings/cookouts/etc, I'm not too worried about progressing further until later in the week. I'm pretty sure that most, if not all, of us here are US players, so try not to blow up the grill or burn down the house this Monday, folks.
That reminds me-
We picked up a +1 heavy mace from the traitor crusader in the library. What did we do with that.
Also, what kind of armor was that guy wearing? Would it fit Lann?
The +1 heavy mace is sitting unused on the loot log. The guy it belonged to was wearing banded mail armor, so it's heavy armor, +7 AC, max dex bonus to AC of +1. Lann has no class levels and doesn't actually have any armor proficiencies.
I swear all this talking to myself is going somewhere eventually. Hope it doesn't bug anyone.